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A stylized drawing of an insulin vial.

The Insulin Empire

Insulin transforms a sick body. It also has the potential to reconstitute our political economic realities.
by Edward Ongweso Jr., Athena Sofides via The Baffler on May 30, 2024
Endesha Ida Mae Holland in the documentary “Freedom on My Mind.

“Freedom on My Mind”: A Symphony of Voices for Civil Rights

This 1994 documentary brings the passions and agonies of Mississippi’s voter-registration drive into the present tense.
by Richard Brody via The New Yorker on February 22, 2024
Ivory Perry.

Ivory Perry, the Forgotten Civil Rights Hell-Raiser

Activists are often held up as exemplars of personal morality — but in every social struggle, ordinary people with complex lives rise up as leaders.
by Devin Thomas O’Shea via Jacobin on January 15, 2024
partner

How Liberal Policymakers and White Suburban Parents Drove the War on Drugs

A Q&A with Matthew Lassiter about how liberal policymakers and white parents drove the escalation of the War on Drugs.
by Matthew D. Lassiter, Michan Connor via HNN on January 10, 2024
Ronald Reagan signing anti-drug legislation as Nancy Reagan and legislators look on.
partner

America's War on Drugs Was Always Bipartisan—And Unwinnable

There was really only one big difference between liberal drug warriors and conservative ones.
by Matthew D. Lassiter via Made By History on December 7, 2023
Photo of college graduates throwing their caps in the air.

Borrowed to the Hilt

President Biden’s SAVE plan isn’t going to rescue the tens of millions of Americans that together owe more than $1.7 trillion.
by Elizabeth Tandy Shermer via The Baffler on October 11, 2023
UAW workers at a strike event.

Revaluing the Strike

Rather than viewing strikes as a last-resort bargaining tactic, the labor movement must embrace them as engines of political transformation.
by Erik Baker via Jewish Currents on September 27, 2023
Robert D. Bullard

The Father of Environmental Justice Exposes the Geography of Inequity

Robert D. Bullard reflects on the movement he helped to create.
by Robert D. Bullard, Yessenia Funes via Scientific American on September 19, 2023
Wood engraving of streets and buildings in a city scene.

The World That Municipal Socialists Built

Urban socialists blazed a path toward social democracy. Leftists who want to reclaim this tradition face a whole new set of obstacles.
by Justin H. Vassallo via Dissent on September 5, 2023
A view of the Grand Canyon.

When the Government Tried to Flood the Grand Canyon

In the 1960s, the government proposed the construction of two dams in the Grand Canyon, potentially flooding much of Grand Canyon National Park.
by Livia Gershon, Byron E. Pearson via JSTOR Daily on August 12, 2023
Harvey Milk, sitting at his desk, December 4, 1977.

Why Is Harvey Milk Still Dangerous, 46 Years After He Was Assassinated?

The Temecula Valley school board in Southern California wants to erase gay rights leader Harvey Milk from history, defaming him as a “pedophile” in the process.
by Peter Dreier via Jacobin on June 11, 2023
Scale, with pile of U.S. states weighing down one end, and the U.S. on the other.

How a Fringe Legal Theory Became a Threat to Democracy

Lawyers tried to use the independent-state-legislature theory to sway the outcomes of the 2000 and 2020 elections. What if it were to become the law of the land?
by Andrew Marantz via The New Yorker on June 5, 2023
A 1938 poster from the Women’s Field Army of the American Society for the Control of Cancer.

Should We Abandon the Idea That Cancer Is Something To ‘Fight’?

Is the century-old battle metaphor doing more harm than good to doctors and patients alike?
by Elaine Schattner via Aeon on May 9, 2023
Cover and pages of "American Redux" book about housing.

The Rich American Legacy of Shared Housing

A visual journalist remembers a time when "housing was more flexible, fluid and communal than it is today.”
by Ariel Aberg-Riger via CityLab on May 2, 2023
Campaign signs from the Carpenters and Millwrights union supporting Michigan Governor Grace Whitmer.
partner

Michigan Repealed Its ‘Right-to-Work’ Law, a Victory for Organized Labor

Labor activists can learn from the decades-long campaign to undermine their influence by focusing on state-level action to bolster their cause.
by Jennifer Standish via Made By History on May 1, 2023
Arlington County Board Chair Katie Cristol hears from citizens at a board meeting in November. The attendees were demanding more affordable housing in Arlington, Va.
partner

The Battle of the Suburbs is Back. Will It End Differently?

The lessons of the past for suburban affordable housing advocates.
by Lily Geismer via Made By History on April 25, 2023
Three demonstrators hold proabortion signs outside the federal courthouse in Amarillo, Tex. (David Erickson/AP)
partner

Abortion Pill Decision Reveals How the Debate Has Changed Since Dobbs

The medication abortion decision by a federal judge in Texas focused on the rights of fetuses and the interests of doctors — not the rights of women.
by Felicia Kornbluh via Made By History on April 10, 2023
Two African American boys working in the Freedom Press Office in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in July 1964.

Florida’s Stop Woke Act is Latest in a Long History of Censoring Black Scholarship

America has been declaring war on Black education since this country’s beginnings. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Stop Woke Act seeks to continue this tradition.
by Darryl Robertson via Andscape on February 23, 2023
DDT being sprayed at Jones Beach in New York in 1945.

The Problem With Silent Spring Environmentalism

A new history of the environmental movement places too much emphasis on famous figures like Rachel Carson and shies away from confronting failures.
by Scott Wasserman Stern via The New Republic on January 10, 2023
Postcard of Wood Island Park.

How Logan Airport Almost Destroyed East Boston

The echoes of an airport expansion, completed half a century ago, continue to harm Bostonians' health and well-being today.
by Jeremy Siegel via WGBH on December 13, 2022
Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole standing alongside an elephant on Capitol Hill, 1995.

Myths of Doom

Can the origins of today’s right be traced to the 1990s?
by John Ganz via The Nation on November 29, 2022
Photograph of Donald Trump smiling and giving a thumbs up, with Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. behind him.
partner

A New Documentary Exposes the Truth About the Religious Right

It’s a political movement willing to align with anyone to win.
by Matthew Avery Sutton via Made By History on November 16, 2022
Ricardo Flores Magon's mugshot.

The Anarchist Who Authored the Mexican Revolution

A new history of the rebels led by Ricardo Flores Magón emphasizes the role of the United States in the effort to take them down.
by Geraldo Cadava via The New Yorker on October 5, 2022
Los Angeles at dusk.

The Politics of Concrete

Infrastructural projects should be understood in terms of whose lives they make more livable—and the futures they enable or foreclose.
by David Helps via Protean on July 21, 2022
A celebration outside the Supreme Court on June 24, in Washington. (Steve Helber/AP)
partner

The Christian Right’s Version of History Paid Off on Abortion and Guns

How Christian conservatives' version of American history shaped the Supreme Court’s abortion and gun decisions.
by Lauren R. Kerby via Made By History on July 18, 2022
A woman spraying DDT aerosol on her windows to keep insects at bay, 1955.

DDT Is Still With Us, 50 Years Since It Was Banned

Scientists have found toxic levels of the chemical at large. And some groups are making the case to produce even more.
by Scott Wasserman Stern via The New Republic on May 31, 2022
People talking about a neighborhood map, from the cover of Claire Dunning's book "Nonprofit Neighborhoods."

Grantmaking as Governance

A new book examines how the US government funded the growth of — and delegated governance to — the nonprofit sector.
by Benjamin Soskis via Stanford Social Innovation Review on May 26, 2022
Photograph of candles, bouquets and signs left at a memorial for the Buffalo Shooting victims, May 2022.
partner

The Buffalo Shooting Exposes How History Shapes the Present

This northern city was shaped by racial terrorism and persistent advocacy for Black liberation.
by Chad Williams via Made By History on May 17, 2022
Students paddling rafts on Milwaukee River

Remember When Earth Day Used to Be Cool?

Today, the holiday is just a chance for ExxonMobil to release nonsensical ad campaigns. But once upon a time, it was a radical success story.
by Liza Featherstone via The New Republic on April 21, 2022
Illustration of Nation of Islam members holding hands with Muslims from the Middle East over globe.

The Nation of Islam's Role in U.S. Prisons

The Nation of Islam is controversial. Its practical purposes for incarcerated people transcend both politics and religion.
by Olivia Heffernan via JSTOR Daily on March 22, 2022
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